Dave Matthews Band Did It: Everyday Lands At #1

Unlike last week’s chart-topper Shaggy, whose ubiquitous single “It Wasn’t Me” has helped keep his album Hotshot at #1 for the past four weeks, Dave Matthews is more than happy to take the blame for his actions.

Thanks to “I Did It,” the Dave Matthews Band’s fourth album, Everyday, lands the top spot on next week’s Billboard albums chart. With more than 732,000 copies sold, according to sales figures issued by SoundScan on Wednesday (March 7), Everyday is the strongest debut by any LP released this year, and its first-week tally becomes the highest of the band’s previous releases.

DMB’s competition-crushing sales bump Shaggy’s Hotshot to the #2 position, with more than 269,000 copies sold, roughly the same amount as last week’s total.

Everyday was one of three debuts to crack this week’s top 10. DJ Clue’s The Professional 2 enters the chart at #3 (with more than 239,000 albums sold), and Project Pat’s Mista Don’t Play comes in at #4 (126,000).

Debuts aside, none of the other albums in the top 10 made any headway in chart position, and only one record, Dido’s No Angel (at #5, with 125,000 sold), moved more copies this week than last — the album saw a puny 1,500-copy increase.

Former best-seller The Beatles 1, finally showing signs of slowing, drops to #6 (96,000 sold), down three spots and 30,000 copies from last week’s figures. Wrestling fans must be saving their money for tickets to the 17th incarnation of Wrestlemania, since last week’s #2 album, the various-artists compilation WWF: The Music, Vol. 5, falls seven places to #9 (83,000), selling less than half of last week’s total.

Rounding out the rest of the top 10 are the “Save the Last Dance” soundtrack, at #7 (90,000); Ja Rule’s Rule 3:36, at #8 (84,000); and Lenny Kravitz’s Greatest Hits, at #10 (82,000).

Perhaps a run in the witness chair, even if it wouldn’t have helped clear ex-boyfriend Sean “Puffy” Combs, might have prevented Jennifer Lopez’s J.Lo from taking the biggest nosedive of any album in the top 20, falling 11 spots to #17 with 67,000 copies sold.

Seven of 23 live Pearl Jam albums recorded during their U.S. tour last year debuted in the Billboard 200, a feat that breaks the band’s own record set in October, when five of the 25 concert albums from its European trek charted. The recording of the group’s August 25 show in Jones Beach, New York, was the most popular of the bunch, selling more than 7,900 copies to land at #159. Only a few hundred copies separate the rest of the pack, with Boston 8/29/2000 coming in at #163 (7,600); Indianapolis 8/18/2000 at #174 (7,100); Pittsburgh 9/5/2000 at #176 (7,100); Philadelphia 9/1/2000 at #179 (7,000); Tampa 8/12/2000 at #181 (6,900); and Memphis 8/15/2000 at #191 (6,500).
Silkk the Shocker’s My World My Way and Jessica Andrews’ Who I Am are the only other debuts to even come close to the chart’s top quadrant, landing at #12 (81,000) and #22 (62,000), respectively. Other chart debuts include A*Teens’ Teen Spirit, at #52 (29,000); Ricky Martin’s greatest-hits-en-español album, La Historia, at #83; Dirty’s Pimp & Da Gangsta, at #88; A.B. Quintanilla y Los Kumbia Kings’ Shhh!, at #92; Gladys Knight’s At Last, at #98; the various-artists anthology Def Jam Recordings 1985-2001, at #119; American Hi-Fi’s self-titled LP, at #126; and Lords of Acid’s Farstucker, at #160.